17th century, Flemish school

17th century, Flemish school

Adoration of the Magi

Oil on copper, diam. cm 19,5

With frame cm 35,3 x 35,3

Engraved on the back in calligraphy seventeenth century "Fiamingo"

Vivid scene of worship, brilliant of the most symphonic colors. The particular copper support allows the artist’s inspiration to express himself to the maximum of the expressive vein, highlighting through a beautifully lit coloristic cangiantismo a composition at the same time choral and intimate devotion. There is the procession of the magi, made up of the traditional trio of reigning exotics, although the canonical Gospels do not recall their number on any occasion. The figural specification of the three, defined according to a crescendo of maturity, is a metaphor for the total participation by the human race in the birth of Christ, both young and mature people. The candor of the Virgin and the Child, added to the cobalt blue of the robe of the Mother’s maphorion, stands out exceptionally on the gold and the grape of the robes of the Magi; a soft flutter of capes makes the palpitation of the moment, in which the three ambassadors simultaneously bow to the Son, in a joyful and incontentable homage. In the background, Joseph observes peacefully the scene; the addition of oxen, asses and camels, as well as the superb comet tail, completes the delicate picture, infinitely precious in the pearly touches of light that illuminate the crowns and the else of the magi, Happily touching in the night sailing the sky in the distance. 

As mentioned in the engraving on the back of the copper, which identifies the present artist as "Fiamingo", it is possible to compare the painting with contemporary examples made by artists such as the eclectic Frans Francken the Younger (1581-1642) and Simon de Vos (1603-1676). The gentle and luminous world of Francken, reproduced in the plastered polishes of the painting in question, also occurs in the Adoration of the Magi performed by the Flemish and now kept at the Courtier Lodgings of the Royal Castle of Warsaw, as well as in the National Museum of the same city. Dean of the pictorial Guild of Saint Luke of the southern Dutch school from 1614, Francken specialized in small-format paintings becoming a leading model among Flemish artists; excelled in many fields, and became head of a flourishing workshop to which he joined, later, also his son Frans Francken III (1607-1667). A replica of the copper presented here is recently passed on the antique market, of not superb workmanship as the present one. The founder of the Francken influenced the works of contemporaries Pieter Paul Rubens, Jan Brueghel the Elder and David Teniers the Younger. Simon de Vos is approachable to the present, as well as for obvious formal assonance, for the reproduction of the exotic and swinging camel on the left side of the painting, in works now preserved in private collections. Note the figurative derivation of this camel with that performed in the volume Historiae animalium published in Zurich in two times, first between 1551-58, then in 1587, revolutionary encyclopedia of zoology curated by Conrad Gesner, lecturer at the Carolinum, then ancestor of the University of Zurich. 

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